Affaire Royale Read Online Free

found her collapsed on the side of the road, yet no one knew what she’d been through. He could remember the scent of her perfume from ten years before. She couldn’t remember her own name.
    Some puzzles could be left on the shelf and easily ignored; some could be speculated on and left to others. Then there were those that intrigued and tempted. They called to the part of him that was seduced by questions, riddles and the often violent way of solving them that, he’d nearly convinced himself, had been overcome.
    Armand had been clever, Reeve thought grimly, very clever, to insist that he see Princess Gabriella for himself. What was he going to do about her? he asked himself. What in hell was he going to do? He had his ownlife to start, the new one he’d chosen for himself. A man trying for a second beginning didn’t have time to mix himself up in other people’s problems. Hadn’t that been just what he’d wanted to get away from?
    His brow was furrowed in the midst of his contemplations; that was how she saw him when she opened her eyes. Brie stared into the grim, furious face, saw the smoldering blue irises, the tight mouth, and froze. What was dream and what was real? she asked herself as she braced herself. The hospital. She allowed her gaze to leave his only long enough to assure herself she was still there. Her fingers tightened on the sheets until they were white, but her voice came calmly.
    “Who are you?”
    Whatever else had changed about her over the years or over the past week, the eyes were the same. Tawny, deep. Fascinating. Reeve kept his hands in his pockets. “I’m Reeve MacGee, a friend of your father’s.”
    Brie relaxed a little. She remembered the man with the tired eyes and military stance who’d told her he was her father. No one knew how restless and frustrated a night she’d spent trying to find some glimmer of memory. “Do you know me?”
    “We met several years ago, Your Highness.” The eyes that had fascinated him in the girl, and now in the woman, seemed to devour him. She needs something, he thought. She’s groping for any handhold. “It was your sixteenth birthday. You were exquisite.”
    “You’re American, Reeve MacGee?”
    He hesitated a moment, his eyes narrowing. “Yes. How do you know?”
    “Your voice.” Confusion came and went in her eyes. He could almost see her grab on to that one thin thread. “I hear it in your voice. I’ve been there … Have I been there?”
    “Yes, Your Highness.”
    He knew, she thought. He knew, but she could only guess. “Nothing.” Tears welled up and were vanquished. She was too much her father’s daughter. “Can you imagine,” she began very steadily, “what it is to wake up with nothing? My life is blank pages. I have to wait for others to fill it for me. What happened to me?”
    “Your Highness—”
    “Must you call me that?” she demanded.
    The flash of impatient spirit took him back a pace. He tried not to smile. He tried not to admire it. “No,” he said simply, and made himself comfortable on the edge of her bed. “What would you like to be called?”
    “By my name.” Brie looked down in annoyance at the bandage on her wrist. That would be done away with soon, she decided, then managed to shift herself up. “I’m told it’s Gabriella.”
    “You’re more often known as Brie.”
    She was silent a moment as she struggled to find the familiarity. The blank pages remained blank. “Very well, then. Now tell me what happened to me.”
    “We don’t have the details.”
    “You must,” she corrected, watching him. “If not all, you have some. I want them.”
    He studied her. Fragile, yes, but under the fragility was a core of strength. She’d have to build on it again. “Last Sunday afternoon you went out for a drive in the country. The next day, your car was found abandoned. There were calls. Ransom calls. Allegedly you’d been abducted and were being held.” He didn’t add what the threats had been or